PROPERTY LAW
WHO GETS THE HOUSE?
MY husband and I have both made wills leaving the house and contents to each other when we die, with our savings to be divided equally among the children. What will happen to the house and contents when both of us have died? IT’S unlikely that you have made wills leaving your property to each other but your cash to your children. When one of you dies, what will the other live on? You have probably left the entire estate (including the house and contents) to each other and then (if the gift fails because one of you has died in the meantime) to the children. This means you don’t necessarily have to make a new will on the first death, and covers the worst case scenario of both of you dying together, in a car accident for example. Check with your solicitor that your wills accurately reflect your wishes.
SPREADING OUT
ABOUT 20 years ago I fenced off some land belonging to a local firm and have been using it ever since as a garden. No-one from the firm has said anything about it; am I now entitled to claim it? IF the land isn’t registered at the Land Registry you may well be able to claim it. But the rules have changed where registered land is concerned, in that you have to be able to show you were in “adverse possession” of the land for 12 years prior to October 13, 2003. If you attempt to claim registered land the owner will be notified if they have kept their address up to date, and have the opportunity to evict you. You should check the registration status of the land before proceeding further.
HOUSE IS ‘MITY’ UNCOMFORTABLE
THE house we are renting is infested with house mites. We have only been here for two months but I have signed a tenancy agreement for 12 months. What will be our legal position if we move out? YOU should ask your landlord in writing to deal with the house mite infestation urgently. It will be an implied condition of your tenancy that your landlord keeps the premises in a state “fit for use”, and you may well be able to argue that the house mite infestation renders the house uninhabitable. It would help if you were able to back this up with a note from your GP. If the landlord fails to solve the problem you may be able to move out without penalty, but you will have to go through the process of letting your landlord attempt to deal with it. If you simply leave, your landlord may be entitled to demand rent for the remainder of the term, or at least until he finds another tenant. The landlord may also forfeit your deposit.
SECRET PURCHASES
RECENTLY I noticed, on the statements for the joint bank account that I share with my husband, two debits from a finance company. Is there any way that I can find out what the loans are for, and when they were taken out? Am I liable for these loans? YOUR bank should be able to give you the contact details of the firms that made the withdrawals, in which case you may solve the mystery. Husbands and wives are not usually responsible for each other’s individual debts; having said that, if a direct debit payment was to put your joint account into the red you would, either singly or together, be responsible for paying off the overdraft.